Thirty Years Of Marriage I Thought Was A Mistake Chapter 08

Thirty Years Of Marriage I Thought Was A Mistake Chapter 08

I stared at the photograph, and my brain completely shut down.

I remembered the scene.

In the fall of my freshman year of high school, our school took us on a field trip to Maple Ridge Arboretum.

That day, I had just left a book stall with an armful of books I had bought when a boy called out to me. I turned around, and he snapped the picture.

But I couldn’t remember what the boy had looked like at all.

“Did you… take this picture?” My voice trembled slightly.

Adrian nodded.

“I was a sophomore in high school that year. I had gone to Maple Ridge with my school’s photography club to photograph the fall colors.”

“You stood in front of that book stall for a long time, comparing two books back and forth. In the end, you bought both even though you were five dollars short, and the vendor agreed to let you pay the remaining five dollars later.”

My eyes began to sting.

“Did you ever pay back the five dollars?” he suddenly asked.

I froze as a hazy memory surfaced from somewhere deep in my mind.

I really had been five dollars short that day. It took me a week to save enough allowance to go back and pay the vendor.

I had never told anyone because I was too embarrassed.

“How… how do you know that?”

“Because I spent the whole day following you from a distance.”

“After you bought the books, you sat on a stone bench beside the path and started reading. You were so absorbed that you didn’t hear your classmates calling you.”

“Later, your teacher scolded you because you had fallen behind and made the entire class wait for ten minutes. You kept your head down the whole time, your ears bright red, and never said a word in your defense.”

My nose stung so badly that tears filled my eyes.

“I remember thinking you were fascinating.”

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, and his eyes held a tenderness I had never seen before.

“I wanted to find you afterward, but I didn’t even know your name.”

“I had the picture developed and kept it in my wallet. I told myself that if I ever saw you again, I would give it to you.”

“But I spent seventeen years looking for you and never found you.”

The comments erupted.

[Seventeen years??? Mr. Prescott was secretly in love with the female supporting character for seventeen years?]

[I’m crying. I’m actually crying. This is the most romantic secret crush ever.]

[So he recognized her the moment he saw her? That’s why he wanted to be with her! It was never about obligation. He already loved her!]

[That’s why the black card never stopped working. He handed his entire fortune to the woman he had loved for seventeen years!]

[All of you who said she wasn’t good enough for him—feeling stupid yet?]

My tears finally fell, splashing onto the photograph in my hands.

“Adrian, you…”

“When I said I wanted to be with you, I wasn’t saying it out of politeness or obligation.”

He reached up and wiped the tears from my cheeks.

“Grace, I love you. I’ve loved you since you were fifteen.”

“When I woke up at the private club and saw you, I thought I was dreaming.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me sooner?” My voice rose through my tears, sharp with anger. “You should have told me! If you had, I wouldn’t have spent all this time agonizing over it!”

“How was I supposed to tell you?” He gave a rueful smile. “You took the card and headed straight for the door. I told you I would give you three months, and you said you were already in love with someone else.”

“Grace, I spent seventeen years trying to find you. When you said, ‘I’m in love with someone else,’ I nearly fell apart on the spot.”

“The person I love is you!” I cried even harder. “I’ve loved you for thirty years! I loved you in our previous life!”

The moment the words left my mouth, I knew I had made a terrible mistake.

I froze.

Adrian did too.

“Our previous life?” he asked softly.

The living room became so quiet that I could hear my mother cooking in the kitchen. Oil crackled in the pan, and the range hood hummed steadily overhead.

I opened my mouth but had no idea how to explain.

Was I supposed to tell him that I had been sent back in time?

Was I supposed to tell him that we had spent thirty years as husband and wife in another lifetime?

Was I supposed to tell him that his eyes had still been open when he died?

“Grace.”

Adrian suddenly stepped closer and cupped my face in both hands. His thumbs gently brushed the tears from my cheeks.

“Do you… remember too?”

My head snapped up.

“What did you say?”

“You just said ‘in our previous life.'” His voice trembled. “You said you loved me in our previous life. Grace, do you remember our previous life too?”

My mind went completely blank.

“Are you saying… you remember too?”

Adrian closed his eyes as though struggling to steady himself.

When he opened them again, his eyes were red.

“I remember,” he said. “I remember everything.”

“When I died, you were holding my hand and sobbing so hard you could barely breathe. I wanted to tell you not to cry, but I couldn’t speak anymore.”

“I wanted to look at you one last time, but my eyes would no longer obey me. Even after I died, they stayed open.”

“Grace, I didn’t die from an illness.”

My blood ran cold.

“What did you say?”